Pyrimidine nucleoside compounds for fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy

Abstract

Fluorescent nucleobase surrogates capable of Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding are essential probes of nucleic acid structure and dynamics. Their limited brightness and short absorption and emission wavelengths have rendered them unsuitable for single-molecule detection. Herein, we synthesized a new tricyclic pyrimidine nucleoside analogue with a push-pull conjugated system. The resulting C-linked 8-(diethylamino)benzo[b][1,8] naphthyridin-2(1H)-one nucleoside (ABN), exhibits ε=20,000 Mcmand Φ=0.39 in water, increasing to Φ=0.50-0.53 when base paired with adenine in duplex DNA oligonucleotides. Single-molecule fluorescence measurements of ABN using both one-photon and two-photon excitation demonstrate its excellent photostability and indicate that the nucleoside is present to >95% in a bright state with count rates of at least 15 kHz per molecule. This new fluorescent nucleobase analogue, which, in duplex DNA, is the brightest and most red-shifted known, is first to offer robust single-molecule fluorescence detection capabilities.